CHRISTMAS

Christmas in Boston and in Murcia are very much the same:

- In both cities, people who own stores decorate them with the Christmas spirit; some people decorate their houses and, in both cities, the streets are lighted.

Murcia

- Families get together to celebrate this Holiday and also the new year.

Boston

However, there are some differences:

- In Boston, instead of the Three Wise Kings, they celebrate Santa Claus' visit, who delivers presents the night before Christmas (kids prepair their stockings for Santa Claus to put their gifts inside them). 

Santa Claus

- Here, during the night of the 5^th of January (when the Three Wise Kings come to every house to put the presents under the Christmas tree), people organize a parade to see them. And it’s very common to eat the “Roscón de Reyes”, that night or the next morning.

Three Wise Kings during the parade

The Hannukah Menorah

- In Boston, nowadays, people on the street say: ”Happy holidays!” instead of: “Happy Christmas!” because in Boston there are many cultures and they respect all of them: some people celebrate Christmas but others celebrate, for example, Hannukah (it’s a  eight-day Jewish holiday that is celebrated because the Maccabees successfully rebelled against  Antiochus IV Epiphanes; according to the Talmud -a late text- the Temple was purified and the wicks of the menorah miraculously burned for eight days, even though there was only enough sacred oil for one day's lighting).

Snow in Boston

Snow in Boston

- In American schools, after Christmas holidays, classes start the 2^nd of January and, in Spain, because of the Three Wise Kings’ visit, we start the 7^th of January.

- In Boston, during these days, it usually snows a lot and Christmas is really a "white Christmas".

But the most important thing is that Jesus was born 2014 years ago and lots of people around the world celebrate this.